Wabash National Corp. said trailer sales continued to stay strong in the first quarter this year, topping out at 11,200 units, which is comparable to the first quarter of 2004. Order backlogs increased to $500 million worth of product.
“Gross margins surged past the 2004 highs as we benefited from the effects of favorable customer and product mix and raw materials price increases,” said William Greubel, Wabash president and CEO.
As a result, revenues and profits jumped in the first quarter for Wabash, with net income rising to $18.5 million on net sales of $256.1 million, compared to net income of $6.9 million on sales of $221.6 million for the first quarter of 2004. Greubel also noted that the company’s gross margin topped 13.4% in the first quarter, up from 10.4% in the same period last year.
“On top of that, quote and order activity improved during the last three months from the pace observed earlier in the 2005 selling season,” he said. “All core accounts have now placed orders and, currently, we have over 75% of our sales goal of 60,000 units for the 2005 year already in hand.”
